Stages of Behaviorism and Logical Positivism

Stages of Behaviorism

• Watsonian behaviorism occurred from 1913-1930
• Neobehaviorism occurred from 1930-1960
• The core of psychology during the neobehaviorism stage was learning
• Behavior was accounted for by laws of conditioning during neobehaviorism
• The principle of operationism was adopted during neobehaviorism
• Sociobehaviorism and the return to cognitive processes occurred from 1960-present

Logical Positivism

• Science was divided into two main parts
• Empirical-Observational Terms was one part of science, according to Logical Positivism
• Theoretical-Theoretical Terms was the other part of science, according to Logical Positivism
• Theorizing was allowed without sacrificing objectivity

Operationism

• A physical concept is defined in precise terms related to the set of operations/ procedures
• Using operational definitions renders the language and terminology of science more objective and precise
• A purpose of operationism is to rid science of pseudo-problems
• The validity of a finding/construct depends on the validity of the operations used to achieve that finding

Bridgman (1927) - The Logic of Modern Physics

• There is a call for precise definition of all physical concepts
• Concepts lacking physical referents must be discarded
• A concept is the same as the procedures by which it is determined
• Length is an example
• Pseudo-problems occur in science when a concept cannot be measured/manipulated under controlled conditions

Edward Chace Tolman (1886-1959)

• Tolman was trained as a Titchenerian structuralist
• He also studied with Holt at Harvard and studied with Koffka
• He questioned the scientific utility of introspection
• He became acquainted with Watsonian behaviorism
• He was an instructor at Northwestern University
• In 1918, he was hired by the University of California at Berkeley
• He taught comparative psychology and conducted research on learning in rats
• He formed his own form of behaviorism after becoming dissatisfied with Watson's
• During WWII, Tolman served in the Office of Strategic Services (OSS); it later became the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
• In the early 1950’s, he was a Berkeley faculty leader of opposition to the state loyalty oath

Tolman’s Purposive Behaviorism

• Introspection was rejected
• There was no interest in any presumed internal experiences unless accessible to objective observation
• Purposiveness was defined in objective behavioral terms
• All behavior is directed toward some goal in purposive behaviorism
• The fact of learning is objective evidence of purpose

Purpose and Behaviorism

• Attribution of purpose to behavior was criticized by Watsonian Behaviorists
• Whether or not an organism was conscious was not relevant regardless of whether it affected behavioral responses
• Central focus was overt responses

Tolman’s Variables – S-O-R

• S-O-R stands for Stimuli-Organism-Response
• Stimuli is the cause
• Organism is the intervening variable
• Response is the resultant behavior
• Stimuli are the independent variables and the initiating causes of behavior
  • Must be observable and operationally defined
• Organism-Intervening variables represent the internal states of the organism such as cognition and emotion
• Resultant behaviors are a function of the 5 causes
• Relationship is expressed in mathematical formula

Causes of Behavior

• Causes are independent variables
• Environmental stimuli
• Psychological drives and heredity
• Previous training and age

Intervening Variables

• Intervening variables are the O in S-O-R
• Intervening variables connect stimulus with observed response
• The actual determinants of behavior include S-O-R which means Stimulus-Organism-Response
• The response is based on the internal feelings/past behavioral learning of the organism

Intervening Variable Example: Hunger

• Hunger cannot be objectively observed, but can be operationally defined
• Hunger can be defined by saying "Animal who has not eaten in 15 hours"
• Hunger is useful only if clearly related to both observable independent variable and observable behavior
• Hunger is operational behaviorism

Learning Theory

• Learning was central in Tolman’s purposive behaviorism
• Thorndike's law of effect was rejected and reward has little influence on learning
• Proposed a cognitive explanation of learning took the place of Thorndike’s law
• Repeated performance of a task strengthens the learned relationship between environmental cues and the organism’s expectations
• Sign Gestalts are expectations that are called "sign gestalts"

Cognitive Map

• A pattern of sign gestalts
• An animal learns a cognitive map, not a set of motor habits (place versus response learning)

Comment

• Tolman was a forerunner of the cognitive movement
• Intervening variables engendered scientific respect for operationally defining internal states
• He was a forerunner of hypothetical constructs

The Rat as an Important Research Subject

• The Rat was the 1930’s-1960’s primary subject for neobehaviorists
• Assumption that one could generalize from rats to other animals and humans
• Rats are simple, easy to study, and readily available

The Spirit of Mechanism

• Strongly influenced by 17th century spirit of mechanism
• The person as a self maintaining robot
• Human behavior is automatic and capable of being reduced to the language of physics
• Hull was an early proponent of artificial intelligence (AI)

Clark Leonard Hull (1884-1952)

• Hull was plagued by ill health and poor eyesight
• Early research interests: Concept formation, the effects of Tobacco on behavioral efficiency, tests and measurements, and aptitude testing
• He invented a machine for calculating correlations
• He was a major influence on American psychology from the 1940’s-60’s
• He applied knowledge of mathematics and formal logic to psychology
• He wrote Principles of Behavior (1943) which was mathematically oriented psychology
• He noted key methods useful for scientific research
• He developed the Hypothetico-Deductive Method while emphasizing the hypothetical definitions of constructs

Objective Methodology and Quantification

• Objective, quantitative and mathematical
• The hypothetico-deductive method uses deduction from a set of postulates and conclusions that are determined a priori (Hypotheses)
• The method submits them to experimental test

Hypothetico Deductive Model

• Use experience and look for previous explanations
• Formulate a set of hypotheses
• Deduce predictions from the hypotheses
• Experimentally test
• Examine results and predict further effects that can be empirically tested
• The theory is wrong if the hypothesis is false
• Continue testing if the hypothesis is true
• Emphasizes falsification

Drives

• Motivation is a state of bodily needs that arise from a deviation from optimal bodily conditions
• Drives are considered an intervening variable in motivation
• A drive is defined as a stimulus arising from a state of tissue need that arouses or activates behavior
• Reduction/satisfaction of a drive is the sole basis for reinforcement
• Strength of drive can be empirically determined by length of deprivation and responsive strength

Drives Continued

• Drives are non-specific and include food, water, and sex
• Drives energize behavior
• There are two kinds of drives
• Primary drives are innate biological needs states that are vital to organism survival
• Secondary (learned) drives are situations or environmental stimuli associated with the reduction of primary drives and may become drives

Learning

• Focuses on the principle of reinforcement and is a need-reduction theory
• Learning is reinforced, takes place, and brings about a reduction of the drive
• The law of primary reinforcement states, when an S-R relationship is followed by a reduction in a bodily need, the probability increases that in the future the same stimulus will produce the same response
• Secondary reinforcement occurs when the intensity of the drive is reduced because of a secondary drive, that drive will act as a secondary reinforcement
• Habit strength refers to the strength of a stimulus-response connection and is a function of reinforcement and refers to the persistence of the conditioning

B. F. Skinner (1904-1990)

• Skinner graduated from Hamilton College with a degree in English
• He completed his Ph.D. at Harvard University
• His dissertation topic was that a reflex is a correlation between a stimulus and a response and nothing more
• World’s most influential Psychologist for decades
• He developed a program for the behavioral control of society, promoted behavior modification techniques, and invented the Baby Tender automated crib for tending infants
• He invented Project Pigeon--pigeon-guided missiles
• Skinner wrote the novel Walden Two

Operant Conditioning

• Operant conditioning differs from Pavlovian (respondent) conditioning because the behavior occurs without any observable antecedent condition
• Operant conditioning operates on the organism’s environment
• The law of acquisition states "strength of an operant behavior is increased when it is followed by the presentation of a reinforcing stimulus."
• Skinner avoided "Explanatory Fiction"
• Explanatory Fiction" explains a behavior but actually adds no real explanatory value and restates the behavior in different words without identifying its true cause
• The fiction sounds meaningful but fails to identify the real, observable cause of behavior

Shaping Behavior

• Behavior is controlled by its consequences
• The consequences are manipulated to increase or decrease the probability of a behavior occurring
• Shaping behavior involves systematically providing consequences in successive steps that move the individual closer to the desired response
• Successive approximation occurs
• There are 4 contingencies of shaping behavior

4 Contingencies of Shaping Behavior

• Positive reinforcement increases a behavior by giving a positive consequence
• Praise is an example of positive reinforcement
• Negative reinforcement increases a behavior by terminating or withdrawing something that is unpleasant
• Nagging is an example of negative reinforcement
• Punishment (aka Positive Punishment) decreases/eliminates an undesirable behavior by giving a negative consequence
  • Receiving a letter of reprimand for showing up late is an example of punishment
• Extinction (aka Negative Punishment) decreases/eliminates an undesirable behavior by removing a positive consequence
  • Giving a child a time out for being aggressive removes the positive consequence of playing with other children to decrease the aggressiveness

Skinner: Successive Approximations & Behavior Modification

• Successive Approximations is used to explain the acquisition of complex behavior
• Behaviors such as leaning to speak will be reinforced only as the come to approximate or approach the final desired behavior
• Positive reinforcement is used to control/modify behavior of individuals or groups
• Frequently used in a variety of applications (such as: mental hospitals, factories, prisons, and schools) to change undesirable behaviors to more acceptable ones

Schedules of Reinforcement

• Skinner discovered reinforcement schedules by accident when Skinner was running low on food for his lab animals
• The limited food supplies meant he needed to make the food last longer while still conducting experiments
• Instead of reinforcing every response, he started reinforcing only some of the responses and animals did not stop responding when reinforcement became intermittent
• In some cases, they responded even more persistently than when they were reinforced every time
• This led to Skinner's discoveries that not all reinforcement needs to be continuous and intermittent reinforcement makes behavior more resistant to extinction

4 Schedules of Partial Reinforcement

• Continuous Reinforcement rewards every behavior
• Partial Reinforcement rewards some of the behaviors
• There are two types of Partial Reinforcement schedules, Ratio and Interval
• Ratio (based on the number of behaviors)
  • Fixed Ratio gives reinforcement after a fixed number of behaviors
  • Variable Ratio gives reinforcement after a variable number of behaviors
• Interval (based on amount of time)
  • Fixed Interval gives reinforcement after a fixed amount of time
  • Variable Interval gives reinforcement after a variable amount of time.

Skinner Box Components

• Cumulative Recorder
• System for Delivery of Reinforcement
• All contained in the Operant conditioning chamber

Criticism and Contributions of Skinner’s Behaviorism

• Skinner was criticized for extreme positivism in opposition to theory
• Critics said reinforcement was not as all-powerful as Skinner claimed
• Skinner's method bettered of human lives and society through the application of the behavioral principles
• A mechanism for behavioral control was created through Behavior Modification
• Methodological Rigor was another one of Skinner’s contributions

Albert Bandura (1925-2021)

• Born to immigrant parents in a farming community in Canada
• In 2002, ranked the 4th most eminent psychologist of the 20th century behind BF Skinner, Jean Piaget, and Sigmund Freud
• He developed Social Learning Theory, Modeling of Aggression, and Self-Efficacy Theory

Social Learning Theory

• Stress is placed on the influence of thought processes, beliefs, expectations, and instructions on behavior/reinforcement
• Vicarious Reinforcement occurs when individuals learn virtually all kinds of behavior without experiencing reinforcement directly
• Modeling occurs when we model our behavior after a person of the same sex/age who have solved problems similar to our own

Modeling of Aggression and the Bobo Doll Study

• The study looked at whether social behaviors like aggression can be acquired through observation and imitation
• Children watched an adult interact with a Bobo doll in one of two conditions
• ½ the children saw the adult yell at and hit the doll
• ½ did not witness the adult yelling/hitting the Bobo doll.
• Children who saw the adult hit the Bobo doll were more likely to hit it

Self-Efficacy

• One is concerned with sense of competence and mastery in dealing with life’s problems and belief about one’s probability of success on a task
• People who have a great deal of self-efficacy believe they are capable of coping with the diverse events in their lives
• Higher self-efficacy = better grades, more career possibilities, greater job success, higher personal goals, and better physical/mental health
• Self-efficacy develops through 4 sources including Direct Experience, Vicarious Experience, Verbal Persuasion, and Emotional Reactions

Radical vs. Methodological Behaviorists

• Radical behaviorists believe that psychology must study only overt behaviors and environmental stimuli
• Methodological behaviorists invoke internal cognitive processes as part of psychology’s subject matter
• Watson and Skinner were radical behaviorists
• Hull, Tolman, & Bandura were methodological behaviorists

One View of Behaviorism

• Henry Roediger (2004) wrote What Happened to Behaviorism?
• The history of Psychology can be seen as early psychologists having great ideas but limited methodology
• Then the Behaviorists came in and a dark age fell on Psychology because creative thought was smothered
• The Cognitive revolution led to a renaissance with shifts back to studying perceiving, attending, remembering, imagining, and thinking
• By the 1990’s, the cognitive approach dominated Psychology

Behaviorism in Perspective: Contributions

• Behaviorists defined Psychology as the science of behavior and its goals (according to Skinner) were the prediction and control of behavior
• Intention to make Psychology a natural science and Operationism (Concepts should be defined by the operations used to measure them)
• Criticisms: Too Microscopic, ignored topics such as sensation, perception, attention, memory, and thinking; too dependent on the rat

Behaviorism Today

• “behaviorism is less discussed and debated today because it actually won the intellectual battle”
• Almost all psychologists today are behaviorists if they are doing empirical research
• The central message of behaviorism has been taken for granted and many tenets are considered essential for understanding psychology
• Applied Behavioral Analysis and Behavior Modification are still going strong and work.